MARILYN MONROE - 168

We are unable to find any versions of this rumor that came with any corroborating information, such as the year she was tested, the type of IQ test she took or why she took an IQ test to begin with, typically it appeared alone or alongside a related claim that Monroe hated being typecast as a “dumb blonde”.

The earliest we were able to find of that particular rumor was in a BuzzFeed list published on 5 August 2013:

Monroe was born in 1926 and turned 18 in 1944. According to the American Psychological Association’s Monitor on Psychology, Monroe was in her twenties when the modern form of IQ testing was introduced in 1949.

Among intelligence tests for children, on test currently dominates the field: the WISC-III, the third revision of psychologist David Wechsler’s classic 1949 test for children, which was modeled after Army intelligence tests develop during World War I.

Although Marilyn Monroe’s IQ is so high, but Monroe’s early life was known to be marked by unrest and instability and she spent much of her childhood in foster care. The tumultuous environment in which Monroe was raised seemed unlikely to have included intelligence testing, she married just after she turned 16 and became a homemaker before reinventing herself in her twenties.

We consulted Scott Fortner, expert on Marilyn Monroe and curator of MarilynMonroeCollection.com. Fortner was familiar with the rumor that Marilyn Monroe’s IQ was measured at 168 and told us that he believed it to be “unfounded”

She was sensitive about her education. It’s known widely that she never graduated high school, but she did focus on self-improvement and development throughout her life. Her personal library contained over 400 books on a variety of subjects, reflecting both her intelligence and her wide-ranging interests.

No surprise to those familiar with Monroe, they were the books of a well-read and inquiring mind. Works of Literature, Art, Drama, Biography, Poetry, Politics, History, Theology, Philosophy and Psychology covered the walls in her library.TEST YOUR IQ:http://www.iq-test.net/

Her library also contained books on gardening, her Bibles and children’s books, including her own copy of the little Engine that could which was possibly marked with her own childish scrawl.

Although was known to be more scholarly than her public personal indicated, we were unable to find any proof that Marilyn Monroe’s IQ was measured as 168 with any test at any time.